How do you play an effective warrior?

I'm just about to quit on it.. I got to lvl 18, and am one mission away from sanctum cay (yay, I forgot the name of it).. and find myself... screwed.

My secondary prof. is Necro (which seems to require way too much energy to make it useful).

Somehow, I'm not doing the type of damage I thought I would though. I'm not swapping away from swords, I know axes do more damage, but I'm female and I like the looks of swords

So yeah, I know I'm not being very informative here, but.. how do you play a warrior?

My other two chars are monk (healer) and mesmer respectivly, and my mesmer is more useful than my warrior!

Sword warriors in PvP are suppose to tank, plain and simple. Skills like Reposte and Deadly Reposte coupled with evading stances and necro condition transfering skills is what you should be aiming for. If you want a more offensive character goto axe or hammer.

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Ok, I'm more interested in PvE... so tanking is probably a better option.

Should I just accept that I can't do any decent amount of damage and get over it?

Do you have a decent sword? Is your swordsmanship up nice and high?

swordsmanship is sitting at 12.. and I have a collection of 3 swords which are all max damage.

Sword warriors should be doing about 10-20 damage per hit, final thrust should be 50+

Are you looking to solo, or play in a party?

warriors don't get the good tanking/solo skills until desert/droknars, after that you can run the gladiator's defense/bonnetti's defense/zealot's fire/symbol of wrath/balthazar's aura build and cream meelee mobs.

With war/nec, bring curses and mark of subversion for AoE damage is one idea... then bring along with it tank stances and shadow of fear to nerf meelee mobs

I liked using blood magic when I went through the game for the first time. Gladiators armor and an idol offhand gave me around 40 energy to use, which was more than enough to deal with one mob at a time. Vampiric Gaze/Touch worked nicely to keep my health high, in addition to Healing Signet. Watch Yourself made up for the lack of shield.